A BID to address the shortfall in hotel rooms for Dublin has received a setback with An Bord Pleanála refusing planning permission to a large scale hotel for Clonshaugh in north Dublin.

It upheld the appeals of several local residents and refused planning permission for a 427-room hotel planned for a site near Clonshaugh Road, close to Dublin Airport.

Residents had claimed to the board that the proposal would have a negative impact on existing residential amenities in the area and would result in a loss of privacy.

The planned 10-storey building consisted of 317 bedrooms and 110 suites and included leisure facilities, meeting and conference rooms, cafés, restaurants and parking spaces for almost 440 vehicles.

The applicant in the case is Carra Shore Hotel Ltd and is run by Irish-based Jalaluddin Kajani, a Pakistan-born businessman who owns two boutique hotels in Kensington, London.

The site is located close to the junction of the M50 and the M1 motorway on a site beside the existing Carlton Hotel.

Advancing the case for its plan, Carra Shore told the appeals board that "there is a shortage of hotel rooms in Dublin and the proposed co-located hotel rooms would add a significant quantum".

The firm said the hotel would provide an appropriate and complementary land use within the High Technology zone and that the site is close to the airport.

In its submission to the appeals board, Fingal County Council justified its decision to grant permission, stating that "the proposed development is in keeping with the pattern of new development in the area…a nd that it will not detract from adjoining residential amenity".

However, the location of the hotel on a site zoned for high technology in the Fingal Development Plan proved crucial in the board refusing planning permission.

In its formal order, it pointed out that hotel uses are not permitted in principle within this high technology zone but are encouraged under other land use zoning objectives of the Development Plan.

The board further stated that the site "is located in an isolated area that does not have the benefit of high capacity public transport".

As a result, the board found that the proposed hotel use does not accord with the overall zoning objective and policies relevant to the area as set out in the Fingal County Development Plan 2017-2023 and that the proposed development would be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.

Five separate third-party appeals were lodged by local residents against the decision by Fingal County Council to give the development the go-ahead. The board decision followed a recommendation of its own inspector to grant planning.

In recent submissions on other planned hotel developments for the capital, Fáilte Ireland said there is a major threat to the future of tourism in Dublin because of the acute shortage of hotel bedrooms in the city centre.

Mary Stack of Fáilte Ireland told Dublin City Council recently: "The current demand far exceeds supply and inevitably in a scenario such as this prices are inflated, giving the message internationally that Dublin is not a competitive destination."